(305) 596-4013

1.866.IVF.BABY (866-483-2229)

Becoming an Egg Donor

Becoming an Egg Donor

The Fertility & IVF Center of Miami continuously recruits donors from Miami and neighboring areas. Recruitment is limited to areas reasonably close to Miami as we are not able to cover the costs of travel and lodging.

Donors must be between 21 to 31 years of age; however, we do accept applications from donors that are 20 years old. They must be a non-smoker, in good health, have a healthy weight/height ratio, reliable, and mature.

Donors are initially screened by phone and receive further information and an application through the mail. The complete initial screening includes:

Written psychological screening test (MMPI)

Consult and exam with our physicians

Hormonal blood test on the third day of menses

Consult with a psychologist

Donors are admitted into the donor pool based on these evaluations. Once in the pool, donors await to be selected by a recipient couple. The length of time between admission into the pool and an egg donation can be just a couple of weeks or one year or more depending on the donor’s characteristics and the type of donor the recipient couple are searching for.

Once a recipient couple chooses a donor, further blood tests are performed on the donor for infectious diseases and genetic abnormalities. The egg donor is taught to self-administer injections and is fully counseled on the donation process.

Donors take fertility drugs that stimulate the ovaries to produce eggs for a period of approximately 10 days. They must also take daily injections of a drug to prepare them to donate, so donors take medications for approximately 3 weeks in total. It is during those 10 days of stimulation that donors attend the office frequently for ultrasounds and blood work to determine the day of egg retrieval.

The egg retrieval is performed under intravenous sedation administered by an anesthesiologist. The eggs are harvested using an ultrasound-guided needle placed in the back of the vagina. The procedure lasts for approximately 15-30 minutes. Donors recover for about an hour and then return home the same morning.

Donors are given an honorarium for a completed egg donation as compensation for the time and effort invested during the treatment.